A New Planter and Trellis to Help with Screening

Hey guys! I hope all of you are doing well and didn’t suffer much damage from the frost that hit us (totally out of the blue) last week! I covered my newly planted Vinca, but they still aren’t looking so good right now. This past weekend, when we had fabulous temperatures in the 80’s, my Super Awesome Hubby and I built a planter box and trellis. We had two main reasons for building this, one being our old pots were crumbling and we needed a trellis for the vines planted in them and 2 to help with screening from our next door neighbors dogs. They have 3 Great Danes and a Blood Hound (who come out through the BIGGEST doggie door I have ever seen) just about every time we come outside… they bark quite a bit and like to stare so a little privacy from them was desired.

(This is just one of the Danes and our Schnoodle giving him the what for… can you see that DROOL?!)

I don’t really have any plans for this build, but I will give you the gist of how we made it, it’s very simple.

First we Super Awesome Hubby built a base out out of pressure treated wood screwing them together with deck screws and bottom support rails. He then built 3 “boxes” and placed them one on top of another (on top of the base) to create the planter sides. We added the upright support pieces, screwing those in place from the inside, these are what held the boxes together.

We then used a spade drill bit and drilled holes in the trellis support poles, being sure not to drill all of the way through. We attached them to the planter box from the outside. We also added a lip to the top of the box, more of a decorative piece, we attached that with finish nails. If I had to do it again I would choose a larger lip, but I still like it as is.

We drilled holes in the upright wood pieces for the trellis and slid the metal conduit through the holes and into the end pieces. We attached support braces to the bottom and top back of the trellis, as well as the very top. This keeps everything all snug and the pipe in place. I drilled holes in the back of the upright trellis pieces and used a machine screw to hold the wood in place on the pipes.

We stained the piece a solid white, applying two coats, we had this stain leftover from our last house so it worked out perfectly! I also added a hook at either end of the trellis to hang our wind chimes and eventually a lantern for nighttime “mood” lighting.

After moving the planter into place we filled it with plastic bottles and jugs (from the recycling bin) in order to take up room so we didn’t need to use so much potting soil. If I had packing peanuts on hand I would have used those too.

We replanted the vines and plants from the old planters. As of today 2 out of the 3 Clematis vines are coming back, but we are still waiting to see if the other one and the 3 Chocolate vines will make it, I hope they do! We also have some Creeping Jenny (one of my favorite outdoor plants) and some purple Viola’s. This will all fill out beautifully eventually but it does look a little sparse now.

You can see how much privacy this trellis will eventually give to the patio once the vines are trained up it.

We don’t have a large patio here at all, but it is plenty big enough for us and soon it will beautiful vines and flowers too!

In case you’re curious we spent about $150 to build the planter, which is 1/2 the cost of the planters that we had to replace! I hope you like this little project, I know we love it!

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13 comments

i can barely comment, as my jaw is on the ground in TOTAL AWE and disbelief that you built this! WOW, you never fail to amaze…. people would buy these from you left, right & center — i’m fully impressed — well done!!

Just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration. I “borrowed” your planter trellis idea and added a few things: wheels, SIP watering and solar lighting. Idea for others; white PEX piping is super cheap vs. meta/copper. Otherwise it’s pretty similar and looks great. Really defines our patio and makes a more intimate dining area. Special thanks to Super Awesome Hubby. He did a good amount of work!